It Took A Rumor
by Hermione Granger63
Summary: Pansy Parkinson and her nasty posse of Slytherin girls have started a rumor involving Hermione and Ron. But what starts out as shameless gossip quickly becomes the turning point in two teenaged lives. PreHBP.


**It Took A Rumor**

by Hermione Granger63

**Summary: **Pansy Parkinson and her nasty posse of Slytherin girls have started a rumor involving Hermione and Ron. But what starts out as shameless gossip quickly becomes the turning point in two teenaged lives. Pre-HBP.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Harry Potter; therefore I will not be making any money for writing this. Oh darn. Also, the song in the beginning of the story, "Something to Talk About" belongs to Bonnie Raitt.

**Author's Note**: I started this story a long time ago, (before HBP) but when I read it over, I realized that there were so many errors in it that I'd probably be better off just rewriting the whole thing. So even though this story was posted _after_ the release of the Half-Blood Prince, there will be no references to it, nor will the plot be based on it at all. While reading this story, pretend that Dumbledore is still alive and kicking during the trio's seventh and final year at Hogwarts. Pretend that Harry never said that he wasn't going to return to Hogwarts whether the Ministry kept it open or not. And pretend that the whole "Ginny/Harry" thing never happened. Thank you.

* * *

Hermione let out a dramatic sigh as she sank deeper into the red satin recliner by the fire in the common room. It was one o' clock in the morning, and on any other given night she would already be lost in a peaceful slumber up in the girls' dormitories at this time.

But _no_.

Harry and Ron just _had_ to leavetheir Transfiguration compositions to the last minute. And of course she just _had_ to give in to their pleas for help.

She rubbed her eyes and looked at the two boys. Harry was speeding through his essay as if the world was about to end, and Hermione knew that once he was done she was going to have to clean up all of his careless mistakes that he missed while flying across the page. Ron was cradling his head in his arm and was taping his quill on the almost completely bare parchment and Hermione knew that in about a half hour she was going to end up writing the whole thing for him. She almost laughed out loud at how predictable this situation was. She twirled a strand of hair around her finger, just waiting for the state of affairs to begin.

Ron stirred as if he just woke up and turned to face Hermione. He smiled tiredly at her, and opened his mouth as if he was about to speak.

"Oh Ron, just give me the parchment," she said, rolling her eyes and sticking her hand out in waiting for his paper.

Ron yawned and shook his head. "No, that's not it," he said, "I just was wondering whether or not you had a spare bottle of ink in your bag?"

Hermione blinked in surprise, and without a word she opened her bag and pulled out a fresh bottle of ink. She reluctantly got off of the comfortable couch, walked over to the desk where the boys were working, and placed the bottle on the table in front of Ron.

"Thank you," he replied, and he dipped his quill in the ink.

"That's all you have to show for three hours of working!" Hermione asked Ron incredulously, looking down at the parchment that wasn't even halfway covered in words yet.

Harry looked up from his speed-writing to take a look at Ron's work. "Ouch, Ron, you're going to be up all night!"

Hermione turned and looked at Harry's parchment. He had accomplished a lot more than Ron had in the past three hours, but his handwriting was even messier than usual and she could already tell by just looking at it that he had made a few mistakes that would bring an "Outstanding" right down to a "Poor."

She tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes, but it was no use. Hermione couldn't understand why she was aggravated; she _knew_ this was going to happen. She had been thinking about it right before Ron had asked about the ink!

Touching her fingers to her temples, she exclaimed, "Just give me your essays. I'll edit them, okay?" She grabbed both rolls of parchment up and slid in the seat on the end of the table.

"You're my absolute hero, Hermione," Ron said, placing his head on the table and closing his eyes.

Harry was staring at the table with a look of guilt in his eyes. "No, Hermione," he said, "we have to do this by ourselves."

Ron's neck snapped up so fast that Hermione was sure he had broken it. "What?" he asked.

Harry took a deep breath. "Look at her, Ron. She's about to fall asleep."

Ron squinted at Hermione as if trying to decipher how tired she actually was, and then stopped as if he realized something.

"_We're_ tired to!" he explained, "and we have Quidditch practice tomorrow afternoon!"

Harry gave him a look. "Ron, if we don't get any sleep tonight, I'll just cancel it tomorrow and I'll book the pitch for Thursday."

Ron sighed, frustrated that he was completely out of excuses, and grabbed his parchment from Hermione. Harry took his from her as well.

"Go to bed, Hermione," Harry said, looking back at his parchment, "we'll be okay."

Hermione nodded, extremely thankful that Harry wasn't as stubborn as Ron was. She drifted up the stairs to the girls' dormitories, fell into bed, and was asleep the second her head hit the pillow.

* * *

While Hermione slept, Ron complained.

"Why'd you have to send her to bed, mate? She would've finished our essays in all of 10 minutes, and then we'd _all_ be in bed at the same time!" Ron hissed.

Harry ignored him as he fixed the many mistakes on his essay that he noticed Hermione was eyeing while patronizing Ron about his paper.

Ron mumbled incoherently, and Harry took it as a sign that he had admitted defeat, because he picked up his quill and dipped it in Hermione's ink bottle for the first time in almost two hours.

The common room door opened with a bang, and a hysterically laughing Ginny waltzed into the room on the arm of Dean Thomas. Ron's ears turned red with anger, and he looked to Harry for support. Harry was poking daggers into Dean's head with his eyes, and Ron took this as if Harry was behind him one-hundred percent.

"Bloody hell, Ginny, what the sod are you doing here? I thought you were in bed!" Ron revoked. Ginny whirled around and sent her brother a look of detest.

"I'll have you know; dear _brother_, that I consider myself to be an _adult _now, and I think I can make my own decisions as far as what time I decide to go to bed at night!" Ginny answered defiantly.

Harry noticed that Dean was tugging on his shirt collar uneasily, as if he wasn't sure if he should stay and pretend not to be there, or if he should quietly dismiss himself. Harry's eyes narrowed. He deserved to be perturbed, the selfish berk.

"Adult? _Adult?_ Ginny, _I'm _not even an adult yet, and I'm a bloody year older than you!" Ron shouted at her, crinkling his nose in a look of frustration.

"Are you _kidding_ me? You, Harry and Hermione were caught hundreds of times out of bed after curfew, and you were out doing stuff worse than what I was doing!" Ginny crossed her arms over her chest to show that she felt that her statement was unarguable and that she had just won this little tirade.

Ron raised his eyebrows, and his voice suddenly got very cold. "So, _Virgin_ia, care to share what you were doing this evening with our nice friend Dean that isn't as bad as what me, Harry and Hermione have done in the past?"

Dean chose this time to mumble a quick "goodnight" and dashed up the stairs as fast as he could, without even looking Ron or Harry in the eye. Ron didn't take his eyes off his sister, who was still looking fit to kill, but less confident in herself. She was staring at the floor, as if looking for a way to get out of this situation.

"_Well,_ Ginny?" Ron repeated.

Ginny's eyes snapped up to meet Ron's angry gaze.

"WE WERE SNOGGING, OKAY RON? Are you happy? We were snogging in the broom closet across from the prefects' bathroom, satisfied?" Ginny yelled at the top of her lungs. Harry winced; he was absolutely sure she had just woken up every single person in the castle.

It looked as thought steam was about to shoot out of Ron's red ears. He sat back down in his seat, and stared at his parchment as if he wished it was Dean so he could rip it into tiny, microscopic pieces.

Ginny still looked angry, and didn't sound like she meant it when she said "goodnight" to both boys. She trudged up the stairs to the girls' dormitories, and slammed the door so hard that Harry heard a girl yell, "Ginny, honestly!" from behind it.

When Harry turned back to his parchment, he noticed that Ron was speeding through his almost as fast as Harry had been earlier. Ron was holding the quill so tightly in his hands; Harry swore that it was going to snap momentarily. He sighed tiredly, and continued to right his paper.

After about a half-hour, which contained a lot of writing and occasional mumbles from Ron about how his sister had turned into a "scarlet woman," the boys looked at each other, agreed that they were both finished, and trudged up to the boys' dormitories. They, like Hermione, fell asleep before their heads hit the pillow.

* * *

By the next morning at breakfast, Ron and Ginny hadn't mended the wounds of the night before, and didn't look each other in the eye at all. Hermione sat between them at breakfast, and besides the random mumbles of, "Will you please pass the syrup?" or "Toss a muffin over here," no one spoke. Harry and Hermione would occasionally lock eyes and shake their heads at the situation, but it remained a very quiet meal nonetheless.

A few tables away, Draco Malfoy was sitting beside his crones, Crabbe and Goyle, all laughing together over how Pansy Parkinson had innocently spied Dean Thomas and Ginny Weasley sneaking into a broom closet for a quick snog the passed night.

"Honestly, if it weren't for her family's obsession with muggles, and their fascination with one "Sod Boy Who Lived," I would've bagged Ginny Weasley a long time ago." Draco said smugly.

Jealousy flashed in Pansy's eyes. "But she's a muggle-lover, and happens to be best friends with a Mudblood, so you won't." she declared.

Draco turned to her. "Pansy, I'm a guy, and she's a girl. A good-looking girl. So it's only natural for me to feel like that."

Marcus Flint looked over at the Golden Trio plus Ginny Weasley. He noticed the bushy haired Gryffindor sitting beside the red-haired beauty, and wore a mischievous grin on his face.

"So Draco, would you ever give Hermione Granger a roll in the sack?" he asked, laughing.

Draco laughed along as well. "No, I'll leave her to Weasley." he said, chuckling.

Pansy's eyes widened. "Weasley?" she asked inquisitively.

"Yeah," Draco said casually. "He's had it for her for a long time. Did you see the way he reacted when she kissed him 5th year? Priceless!"

Pansy's eyebrows raised as the recollection of Hermione kissing Ron's cheek in 5th year before his big first Quidditch match flooded back to her memory.

FLASHBACK

_Hermione and Ginny sat down opposite them wearing red-and-gold scarves, gloves, and rosettes._

_"How are you feeling?" Ginny asked Ron, who was now staring into the dregs of milk at the bottom of his empty cereal bowl as though seriously considering attempting to drown himself in them._

"_He's just nervous," said Harry_

"_Well, that's a good sign, I never feel you perform as well in exams if you're not a bit nervous," said Hermione heartily._

"_Hello," said a vague and dreamy voice from behind them. Harry looked up: Luna Lovegood had drifted over from the Ravenclaw table. Many people were staring at her and a few openly laughing and pointing; she had managed to procure a hat shaped like a life-size lion's head, which was perched precariously on her head._

"_I'm supporting Gryffindor," said Luna, pointing unnecessarily at her hat. "Look what it does…"_

_She reached up and tapped the hat with her wand. It opened its mouth wide and gave an extremely realistic roar that made everyone in the vicinity jump._

"_It's good, isn't it?" said Luna happily. "I wanted to have it chewing up a serpent to represent Slytherin, you know, but there wasn't any time. Anyway…good luck, Ronald!"_

_She drifted away. They had not quite recovered from the shock of Luna's hat before Angelina came hurrying toward them, accompanied by Katie and Alicia, whose eyebrows had mercifully been returned to normal by Madam Pomfrey. _

"_When you're ready," she said, "we're going to go straight down to the pitch, check out conditions and change."_

"_We'll be there in a bit," Harry assured her. "Ron's just got to have some breakfast."_

_It became clear after ten minutes, however, the Ron was not capable of eating anything more and Harry thought it best to get him down to the changing rooms. As they rose from the table, Hermione got up too, and taking Harry's arm, she drew him to one side._

"_Don't let Ron see what's on those Slytherins' badges," she whispered urgently. _

_Harry looked questioningly at her, but she shook her head warningly; Ron had just ambled over to them, looking lost and desperate._

"_Good luck, Ron," said Hermione, standing on tiptoe and kissing him on the cheek. "And you Harry"_

END FLASHBACK

Her lips crept up into a smile. She'd always wanted to get Hermione Granger. Pansy was not a fan of girls with squeaky-clean records, who never got in trouble, and who were out and proud prudes. Usually Pansy would start casual rumors about people she disliked, and almost always, the rumor was completely fabricated; something that emerged out of Pansy's mind.

But this time, the event really took place. Granger couldn't deny it. Because then she'd be a liar. And nobody like Granger wants to be a liar.

Pansy excused herself from Draco's table, and walked over to where her friend, Millicent Bulstrode, was sitting along with a few other Slytherin 7th years. She sat down, and leaned her head into their conversation.

"Hey girls," Pansy said, an evil glint in her eye. "Remember how I've always wanted to see Hermione Granger fall?" The others nodded.

"Well, now I know how," she stated. "Hermione Granger is in love with Ronald Weasley."

* * *

End of chapter one. I love reviews, but go easy on me, okay? I don't mind constructive criticism, but if you want to tell me I'm a horrible excuse for a writer, and I should just pack up my laptop and move on with my life, then please don't review.

Hugs,

Hermione Granger63


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